Chips
by Jackrabbit2011
Summary: Everybody has skeletons in their closets. Things that they don’t want anyone else to see. Except Rose’s aren’t skeletons, and they’re refusing to stay hidden away…
1. The Wonder of Garfield's

**A/N: It is so typical, is it not, that the moment you say to yourself, "right, no more fanfiction stories," is the exact second that about twenty new ideas pop into your head and refuse point blank to go away. This is one said story of mine- enjoy. **

**Summary: Everybody has skeletons in their closets. Things that they don't want anyone else to see. Except Rose's aren't skeletons, and they're refusing to stay hidden away… **

**Disclaimer: Own the plot and Nuffink else. **

≈ Chapter One: Wentley Park ≈

**C**hips!" The Doctor crowed as the TARDIS lurched around them with an almost fierce intensity. "Chips, chips, chips!"

"Uh...chips?" I asked dubiously as I stared at the crazy alien on the opposite side of the console. He shot me his trademark bonkers-crazy-with-a-twist-of-terminally-insane look, whooping with delight as his ship gave an extra-large lurch, catapulting him over the various bleeping and honking buttons and onto the floor in front of me.

He giggled and looked up at me, his face practically glowing with childish exuberance. I couldn't help but laugh as I stared at him- his excitement was contagious.

"You're high!" I managed through the laughter, and he winked at me as he sprang to his feet.

"High as a hatter! On a Saturday night- with Lindt chocolate and blue Smarties!" He replied- and I laughed at the sheer bizarity of the words he'd used. "Now... chips!"

"Chips?"

"Yes, chips! Chips, chips, chippity-chip-chips... what?" The Doctor only shot me an innocent look at my incredulous expression "Chips." He added, as an afterthought.

"Stop saying chips, you're making me hungry." As if agreeing with me, my stomach rumbled loudly. The Doctor gazed at me disapprovingly.

"There was no need for that, Miss Tyler!" he chastised, and then bounded away before I could reply. "Honestly, humans these days- so rude..." without pausing, he grabbed my hand and hauled me towards the door. His excitement seemed to have granted him super-human strength (unless, being a Time Lord, he'd already had that, which wouldn't have been surprising) and it was all I could do not to topple over and fall on my face in the most undignified fashion possible. I had no choice in the matter- where the Doctor dragged, I followed; albeit unwillingly, to his ecstatic cry;

"Come on, Tyler- the chips await! Woooooo!"

* * *

We ended up near home.

"You're telling me, Doctor," I said, trying as hard as I possibly could keep my tone neutral… and failing with enough drama to rival any actress in the land. "That you just nearly killed us with your god-awful driving skills- bounced off the TARDIS walls with ecstasy, and then almost yanked my arms off their sockets in your hurry… all to bring me within a mile of my mum's house?!"

He held up a newspaper in way of explanation- or redemption, I wasn't sure. I looked at the date curiously. "Well, four years into your past, if that helps?"

"Did you _plan _to bring us here, to a time when I am seventeen?" I asked, confused. The year somehow felt important, but I couldn't remember being seventeen very well; not after two years of trailing through time and space. Late-teenage angst sorta got swept away by all the monsters and aliens and stars that you saw with the Doctor.

The Doctor hesitated, grinning a small, innocent smile that screamed at me with the potential to bloom and erupt into something I considered far more dangerous; mischief. I glared at him suspiciously.

"What are you up to?"

That blazingly bright innocence was back- which left about as much impression on me as a cat-hair.

"_Doctor_." My voice was full of warning, and his innocent expression turned indignant.

"What?!" He cried at me. "What's wrong with chips? Do you have a problem with chips, Rose? DO YOU??!"

"Um… no?" I asked, fighting a smile as he looked at me with intense, passionate fury. He seemed very set on chips.

Immediately, his face relaxed into a smile. "Knew I'd win… anyway, Garfield's okay?"

"It's practically blasphemy for a Tyler to eat chips from any other chipshop!" I grinned, and allowed myself to be jerked away again. I had long ago abandoned ever having normal- length arms ever again. The Doctor seemed incurably obsessed with wrenching them away from my body at any opportunity he had.

And yet, for all the arm-pain that insane idiot caused me, he still had great hair. I could forgive him anything for that crazy mop.

* * *

"Mmmffph um grrg!"

"I beg your pardon?" I tried politely, still at loss at why a nine hundred year-old had no table manners. Actually, he probably did- most likely he just chose not to use them so he could see the surprised-disgusted look on my face every time he spewed chips at me. Which was often.

"Mmmmwf!" He tried again, trying and failing to make is already bizarre sentences legible over the twenty-something chips that were crammed into his mouth. Yep, I could still forgive him this as well… sort of.

The Doctor rolled his eyes- the only action he could do that didn't seem to require use of his over-worked mouth- at my confused/ repelled expression as I watched with quiet, disgusted fascination as he swallowed chip after chip in what I could only describe as the Speed of Scoffing. With one large- and very painful, it looked- gulp, the offending chips that were restricting use of his voice (and threatening to suffocate him at the same time) were swallowed, and the Doctor resumed his ten miles per hour speech pattern.

"I. Love. Chips!" He crowed, gesturing wildly with his hands- that were occupied, might I add, by _two_ large portions of chips that he had been hording all to himself for the last five minutes. Whenever I tried to nab a stray chip from the pile(s), he shot me the evilest look he could muster, as if I'd just kicked his puppy and then squirted him with toothpaste. But, of course, any look of evilness and the Doctor combined just made him look sweet, like a seven year old trying to give you the evil eye.

"Chips, chips, chippity chippity chip chips"-

"Yes, alright calm down," I said, slight irritable at the fact that not only had the Doctor dragged me here and got himself forgiven about it before I'd even had time to _think_; he'd even managed to wheedle two large portions of chips out of me _and_ horde them all to himself. I had yet to even get within an inch of the precious fried potatoes that he seemed to be viewing as edible gods. "We've been through the chip-speech already. I get it, love. You like chips."

The Doctor grinned at me, and then paused with a slightly shocked expression on his face. A chip stopped halfway to his mouth, looking slightly fatigued as it drooped on the pink (he'd insisted to the server-girl that he had pink forks) plastic fork with an almost resigned air, as it had given up hope of ever being munched on by a normal human who just wanted a nice chippy snack. He stared at me with wide, almost comically terrified eyes that made an image of a man's response to his girlfriend saying she wants to marry him look spring immediately to my mind.

"Er, _what_ did you just call me, Rose?" He said, his voice a panicked squeak. I grinned evilly to myself as I realised what I'd said and what he was obviously thinking.

"Oh, but I love you _so_ much." I simpered, inching closer to him, barely restraining my laughter as the Doctor practically jumped backwards off the park bench.

"Er, I was just asking you for chips, Rose." He said, almost falling off the edge of the bench as he stared at me with a terrified look on his face. He held up the chip bags to me, as if as proof, or a shield for him to hide behind from my 'advances'.

Finally, I could contain my giggles no longer. He peeped over from behind the chips as I exploded into uncontrollably laughter, his brown eyes wide and fearful, as he expected this to be another progression of attack. Then he realised that I had tears of exuberance pouring downs my face, and straightened, coughing.

"Erm, yeah." The Doctor mumbled, at loss of what to say. Instead, to save himself further embarrassment, he stuffed a chip into his- for once- empty mouth and chewed as the world itself depended on it.

**A/N: Love the last paragraph there! Also, I have a very strict quota for how long or short my chapters are- no less than 1200, preferably no more than 2000. It's easy for you lot out there to read, so I tend to break chapters up- like I did with this one. So, if the endings on some chapters aren't that great, it's because I realised I needed to split it into two chapters and the event didn't call for suspense. Enjoy anyway! **


	2. Wentley Park

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! **

≈ Chapter Two: Wentley Park ≈

**A**ww, I'm sorry." I managed through my giggles. They were abating slightly, and I could form half-coherent mumblings now. "But you shoulda seen your face!"

"Shut up you." He snapped, still chomping on the rest of the chips fiercely, as if they had personally done him a punishable injustice.

"Am I really that unattractive that I'm worth putting chips in mortal danger of ending up on the floor over?!" I asked, half serious. I saw the Doctor wince.

"I didn't say that." He murmured, and flicked me with a salty finger. I flinched as he wiped his fingers on my shoulder with an air of something testing the boundaries. I glared- rubbing salty greasy fingers on my seventh favourite shirt was _so_ breaking lines. He grinned sweetly at me and I felt my annoyance melt. Damn him and his smile- he could get away with murder with that grin! With me at least.

"Besides," He continued, scarfing down the last of his now cold chips. He made at face at the taste. "Do you have any idea what your mother would _do_ to me if I ever even considered that?"

"Jackie's not here." I whispered, and I found I had- or he had- closed the gap between us until we were sitting shoulder to shoulder, staring at each other with our nose's almost touching. I found myself unable to break gaze from his; to utter any words of wisdom (or ore likely, sarcasm) until-

With a cough, he looked away, towards the darkness-shrouded swing set in front of us. Wentley Park was not large, nor was it overly small. Big enough for a swing set, a roundabout; the usual things that resided in kid's public playground. Which included authentic-looking chip bags, cans- various other pieces of rubbish arranged artistically around the periphery. Almost as if someone had intended for the place to look like it housed unbearably lazy people who liked to litter. It was empty, save for us; all the kids were asleep, or at least in the clubs nearby. It was just me and the Doctor and the wind and…. Well, the smell of chips.

"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE _BITCH_!"

The angry shout was thunderous in the night, slicing through the darkness like a butter knife. My head snapped to the left, tracing the origin of the shout; a little slower than the Doctor, I realised absentmindedly, with annoyance.

But I was more caught up with what I saw at the other end of the park.

There were many entrances to Wentley- across from us was one nearest the Tequila Mockingbird, a club that had been one of my favourites when I was a Nightclub Girl. Out of the foliage surrounding the small breach was a girl, walking as fast as she could towards the centre of the park, with the kind of frightened urgency that implied she was walking _away_ from something, rather than towards it. I squinted through the darkness, looking at her curiously.

She'd obviously just come out of the Mockingbird, or another club; well, she was dressed like she had, anyway. But I did have to admit that the black miniskirt and sparkly gold halter top that showed a lot of her midriff- including the glittering pink belly button stud- completely complimented her figure. Matched her shoulder-length blonde hair. Her heels were nice too, I noted; black and strappy, with lovely black satin bows on the back. Very nice. I remembered having shoes like that when I was eighteen.

From this far away I couldn't see her face, but I could tell from the way she was clutching her thin jacket close to herself that she was afraid, and the fact that she kept looking over her shoulder at whoever was behind her, still concealed in the bushes, was a big help as well. She was in trouble.

I turned to the Doctor, but he was already halfway up, clearly going to go over to the girl. I moved to follow him, biting down on a sense of dread. I knew from experience that the Powell estate housed a lot of the rough sort; some guys on it you just didn't want to mess with.

"Doctor"- I began, and he turned towards me briefly. I opened my mouth to issue a wary warning against messing with Powell estate teenagers in hoodies-

And that's when the girl looked up, straight at me.

My breath hissed out of me in one big gush; as if some giant hand had plucked my from Earth and squeezed me, hard, until there was no scrap of oxygen in my lungs. I couldn't move. I couldn't even breathe properly. All I could do was stare.

_Because I recognised her. _

Her hair was shorted, yes- she had a few less wrinkles around her eyes, but it was definitely her. Or should I say… _me_?

_I remembered having shoes like that when I was eighteen. _

The girl was me, when I was eighteen. I could barely remember ever having that belly-button piercing. But there it was, on full show to everyone as the three-year-younger me stared at me with a mixture of fear, curiosity, and panic. I felt a small flush of heat wash over my cheeks as I realised that 'everyone' included the Doctor as well. The first time he gets to know I have my belly-button pierced and it comes from myself three years before I meet him.

How… ridiculous.

The younger Rose stared at me. I stared at the Doctor. And he was… his gaze was fixed on something I couldn't see, behind the bushes of the Mockingbird pathway.

And then it all rushed back to me.

I realised, with a rush of stabbing, uncensored panic; _why_ my eighteenth year had felt important. Why I was staring at my younger self looking so frightened. And why I moved back to my mum's house the following year.

"Jimmy." I whispered, my voice raw and hoarse, the words almost to low for myself to hear. But he heard them.

"Rose?" The Doctor was looking at me now, with a look of complete concern that it made me want to burst into tears. "What is it?"

But how could I answer him when the very truth still hurt to talk about?

I felt numb as my hands unconsciously grasped at his, to pull him away- away from her, away from _him_ and what I knew he was going to do. But he wouldn't budge, even when I silently pleaded with my eyes; begging him without words to _for once_, just to listen to me and don't ask questions, just follow and trust me.

Because I had to get the Doctor out of here. I didn't want him to see-

I felt a rush, but not a good one- it was as if someone had poured a bucket of ice over my head; and the cubes were slowly sliding down my arms, my back, leaving trails of startling coldness in their wake. I senses the muscles on my face lock into position as I watched the figure of Jimmy Stone emerge from the pathway, looking for all the world as if he were rage personified.

My frozen gaze darted to the Doctor's as he moved forward, looking worried. I didn't blame him. I probably looked like a trembling wreck. But I couldn't help it. I felt like a deer, trapped not in headlights, but in direct rays of the sun, slowly but surely burning to death in my own heated terror.

The Doctor spoke, but I did not listen. I did the only thing I could do.

I wrenched myself free from the grasp of the only person I trusted anymore and ran, ran as fast as could, allowing the wind to carry me away from Jimmy Stone and everything he had caused.

**Ooh, cliffie.... reviews? **


	3. Jimmy

**Thanks to Taylor Harkness, Lauren, ****Xbakiyalo (where the hell did that name come from? It's brilliant!) **

**and speciaa thanks to Lizzle09, who seems to read every story I ever write on here; you should be my betareader! **

≈ Chapter Three: Jimmy ≈

I was left feeling a cacophony of confusion, bewilderment and slight annoyance at Rose's dramatic exit. Ordinarily, I probably would've been bothered by that fact that she seemed not to care that the girl in the park- I still couldn't see her face- at all, choosing that moment to flitter off. Mentally evaluating the situation as only a superior intellect such as myself can do- I came to the conclusion that I thought Rose expected me to follow her- even though I was practically being burned by the sheer anxiety that was left in her wake.

Still. The question was, really- why had Rose decided that the park **really **wasn't to her taste, and buggered off to God knew where?

I had resigned myself to swallowing my Time Lord pride and indeed, following her, when I heard the first- of many- screams.

It was a scream I had heard on several other occasions, and the owner was someone I knew _very_ well. I'd heard that voice scream when she illegally rescued her father and brought the Reapers crashing down on us; when she'd been possessed by the malignant Cassandra and we were hurtling down a lift shaft. When she had been watching the door in front of her being ripped apart by were-wolf claws. I'd heard it laugh, cry, scream my own name. But never had I heard it so terrified.

I turned- my mouth already half opened to ask _how _Rose had managed to sneak behind me without me seeing, and why she was so frightened- and froze.

Rose wasn't anywhere to be seen.

The scene in front of me was much the same; the park, the girl, the boy- teenagers, they were. Children.

Except children don't usually scream like that. Theirs are full of mock fear, automatically on the cusp of laughter. I knew a child's laugh- I heard them enough times from my own. But this… this was not- and never had been- the scream of a child.

This was a woman's scream when she is facing something ultimately threatening, and more powerful than she. A scream that indicates the point when the owner begins to fear for her life.

And it was Rose who was screaming. As if everything she'd ever been scared of was coming back to haunt her.

A small part of my vast mind acknowledged the small click (and subsequent pain that I did not feel) of the bones in my neck as my head snapped around, blurringly fast; pin-pointing the scream's origin within seconds. I paused, peering through the darkness- although I didn't need to. With my molecular-enlarged pupils, night was almost the same as day to me. How I loved showing off to Rose.

But tonight my mind wasn't on frivolous and superficial ponderings; because the boy- who couldn't have been more than twenty, the _toddler_- had reached the girl, and he was yelling at her. From my place on the other side of the park, it would be quite reasonable of you to presume that any sound I heard was incoherent. You'd be wrong, of course, but I shall forgive your misconception under the excuse that you had yet to realise just how very inferior humans are to Time Lords.

In short, I could hear every word. And now, with every probability, I will now have a bloodthirsty horde of offended, _primitive_ (oops, forget that) humans hell-bent on my destruction.

"_What the hell do you think you're doing, you little whore?!" _I winced at the sheer vulgarity of the child's angry words. He seemed to be convinced that he could condense his sentences into saliva and thus cover the girl's face with it. Or at least, that's what he seemed to think- all I could see was him spitting in her face.

"How could you?!"

I felt very much like going over there and telling him exactly what the girl thought she was doing and she could, but I restrained myself. I remembered clearly what happened last time I'd tried to help someone- they'd punched me. Not really anything for me to worry about, but the guy had had splinters for knuckles for a very long time after, I guessed from the look of pure agony I'd seen on his face at the time. Best to stay right out of the way, unless it really was necessary.

"I- I"- For some reason, the girl's voice sounded familiar (at this point I still hadn't solved the riddle of hearing Rose when she wasn't there…) but then again, how much difference was there really, between human female screechings? I knew well from Jackie that 'screeching' was an apt term. Not that she would agree with me. I wasn't paying any particular attention, however- I was more interested in the murderous look I could see on the fellow's face than anything else- and so failed to see the obvious until at least another ten minutes.

The girl sobbed loudly, and I gritted my teeth. Not yet. I forced myself t stay in the shadows, unseen. If I stormed in then, I could easily escalate the situation- I knew how much human's loved to over-react to things. He might well reveal a knife and threaten her with it. Which I didn't really need right now. Not with Rose missing and the girl in front of me in danger enough as it was.

"Please," She sobbed, and for a moment my hearts stopped altogether. A dull, thudding ache resonated through my chest as the beats resumed and I was left blinking in the darkness, dazed. Didn't I know that voice? "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Please, not here, Jimmy. Not here"-

But she didn't get any further.

With a cry of uncensored rage that was almost on the same frequency as a bat cry; 'Jimmy'- apparently- did what I could only describe (with a tremendous, age-weary sigh) as a typical human reflex of terrible anger.

His fist swung back and hit her squarely in the face.

Her head snapped backwards, blood spurting from her nose in the most unattractive fashion; the way I had found most humans preferred to live. She crumpled, clutching at her damaged- if not severely broken- nose. My jaw locked as my stomach clenched, a gesture only Rose would have recognised as me experiencing incomprehensible levels of anger. There were things I could tolerate; seeing _that_ was not one of them. I'd held back long enough.

I was moving before Jimmy's arm had even retracted. I was beside him before the girl's limp body hit the floor.

It was my hands that stalled the impact with the floor; her weight was nothing to me at all as I supported her lifeless form with only my hands. She was like the faintest of brushes- like a butterfly's wings- against me. I felt nothing but the anger that was heating my blood as I locked gazes with Jimmy.

I did not know Jimmy, nor did I want to. He was not a nice man- I had already figured that out, what with the assault of the girl and the fact that he was displaying major issues with anger, even at me. I sniffed, gathering an air of haughtiness around me like a second skin. He was nothing to me, this fragile, anger-consumed ant that was right now sizing me up to determine whether I was a threat or not.

I think my narrow frame and handsome looks gave him the wrong perception- that I was weaker than him.

"Get off her," He snarled, and to anyone else I imagine it would have seemed a frightening prospect to be growled at by a twenty-something with tattoos on his neck, but not to me. I stood up, and resting the girl gently to the floor without so much as taking my gaze away from 'Jimmy's' to look at her, I stepped towards him.

My eyes would have been black and empty- nothing like the humorous air-light banter Rose saw- and the eyes of a predator; the eyes that I used for dangerous threats, enemies, hardly suited for dealing with an abusive toddler. And yet I hardly cared. The girl meant nothing to me, and yet a strange, almost fraternal affection rooted me to the spot to protect her.

"Jimmy, I'm guessing?" Without waiting for an answer, I carried on. Wisely, I thought, Jimmy let me finish. It was probably my expression that made him shut up and listen. "Right, 'Jimmy', here's what you're going to do- leave right now, and never, ever come near this girl again. Is that understood?"

Some on his stupidly mulish human pride had returned now. "Are you some guy she's fucking then? Wouldn't surprise me. She's a filthy little slut that's been sleeping around since we started. She deserves everything she gets-get up, you"-

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear, Jimmy," I spat, and part of him shrank away from as I glared. I heard the small shuffle behind me as the girl regained consciousness, but I didn't look around. "If you don't back off right now, you'll have far worse than me just _asking_ you to leave to deal with. Believe me, Jimmy- stronger men than you have lost to me and you would be wise to leave. Now."

He leaned forward, his eyes blazing like drunken streetlamps, and I could smell the alcohol on his breath. I hissed, disgusted at the state of the pampered brat in front of me. I had to hope that he would leave, or I really could do something I regretted. _Humans_ _are fragile_, I reminded myself coldly. _Don't do anything that will permanently hurt him. Remember, you don't like violence- _

"I don't have to listen to you, pal," He spat back. I felt my shoulders beginning to shake with the effort it was taking for me not to lash out at him. I couldn't help it; anything else I could probably forgive, but some nasty, insecure little parasite beating up his girlfriend? That I couldn't take. It was the whole stronger-preying-on-the-weak-for-power circle, and it made me sick. "She's _my_ girlfriend and I'll do what I want. So do me a favour and fuck off. Rose, get up. _Now_ you little"-

But I wasn't listening to him anymore.

I was looking at the Girlfriend, who was still on the floor and looking up at me with a kind of feral terror, mixed with resignation.

"Please, Jimmy." She whispered, and I felt my hearts beats faster as I realised why I'd felt the recognition before, why Rose had tried to drag me away… "Please, you promised. Never again. You _said_… please, not here, not where they can see."

But her words were all melding together in a big, viscous soup in my head. For all of my vast intelligence, my brain couldn't fathom what my eyes were seeing. _This wasn't possible. This couldn't happen, not to her, not my- _

"Rose." I whispered, and felt my hearts simultaneously break as I watched a younger version of my Rose drag herself to her feet, her skin black and bruised, covered in livid cuts; blood staining her perfect face until she wasn't some celestial creature anymore. She was a fallen angel that left me as blank the canvasses I drew on. "Oh, Rose, why didn't you tell me?"

**I'm very, very sorry to have to make you wait two weeks for the next update, but it's really not my fault guys! Intercut kerfuffles, you gotta hate 'em. BUT! I'm not sorry for giving you a little snippet of the next chapter- haha!! **

I could have killed him then.

So many ways- thousands, billions- I could crush the life from his frail body. And leave nothing but dust on the wind.

So easily, and no-one would care. His soul could fade out of existence, and the universe wouldn't even blink.

And I could've done it. Without an ounce of regret I could have snuffed his life out like a candle, then and there.

Because of Rose.

**Reviews, anyway?! *hopeful* **


	4. Predator

**So sorry for the wait, people! Here's hoping you will forgive me... (crosses fingers) **

**A huge thanks to everyone who reviewed (17 for 3 chapters people! Woo!) and specials go to: **

**Lizzle09, EeE (how long was that review?! Loved it though, big thanks!), Dame Rose Tyler, Weepingangel 1123 and Lucky Black Cat... **

**≈ Chapter Four: Predator≈**

I had barely made it to seeing distance of the TARDIS before my knees buckled. Half-crawling, half-lurching towards the only thing I was capable of calling home anymore, I felt the beginnings of hysterical sobs clawing up my throat. My nails (I dimly noted that I was wearing pink nail vanish) dug into the soft blue wood of the doors as I hauled myself through.

The moment I was inside, I felt the sheer essence of _him_ envelope me. The very air I was breathing was saturated with the Doctor, and as my brain registered it, I found I couldn't decided whether it made me feel better or want to cry.

I chose the second option.

The TARDIS hummed thickly around me; in a tone that suggested empathy. The two of us were closely linked now, almost like the Doctor and the machine. Ever since I took the Time Vortex into my head, the TARDIS felt like a presence in my mind, like a colourful shadow. Its soft drone swathed me in the same way as the Doctor's coat did as I sat on the floor, pulling the heavy brown material closer to my body, and let the sobs take over.

* * *

Time ceased to exist.

I drifted.

I was directionless, and yet I had knew where I was.

Wentley Park. Still there. I could see it. Clearly, in minute detail that not even human microscopes would see. The eight colours in a drop of moisture, poised on the very tip of a daisy leaf, fifty feet away. The individual veins coursing through the wings of a butterfly, ten feet away. I could see it all, everything, and yet I could not.

What I should say, is not that time ceased to exist, but ceased to mean anything.

As a Time Lord, I knew time never stopped, but it needed to matter for it to exist; so maybe, for me, for the barest of seconds- it felt like an eternity- time really _did_ stop, because I did not acknowledge it. I was staring.

At her. At Rose.

Seventeen years old, bruised, battered around by her then-boyfriend. She never told me. Ever. Never brought it up once. All I had known of Jimmy Stone was that he had left her broken-hearted and eight hundred in debt. Small, inconsequential things, really.

But this wasn't.

Her young, brown eyes are wide, wide as saucers. She cannot look away from me either. I see my tortured expression in the mirrors of her pupils, and I do not care. I do not matter, not now. Time stops, Rose does not. An infinite moments passes between us, barest, fleeting seconds in which I learn everything. She is afraid, she is hurt. Jimmy Stone has caused the cuts and bruises on her face, her arms, her soul, and it is not the first time. I can see it. Deep in her eyes and yet scraping the surface, there is a lost youth, a voice longing to be heard, screams in the darkness. A hurt pride; she walked out on everything, everyone, who had ever been good to her, and now they have been proved right and she cannot go back. For her pride she is beaten by a boy she loved, because she cannot bring herself to leave him and admit she was wrong. I see the hurt, the screams that don't leave her lips but wish they could. I see the longing for her to see her mother again. To be held, not in anger or rage or whatever Jimmy calls it, but love and tenderness and everything he has stolen from her. I see that there are bruises in her that I can't see, and that will not go away when the marks on her skin fade away. They cannot be undone, they cannot be painted over.

_She never, ever said. _

I do not realise I had said the last part aloud until the girl in front of me- who I know and yet do not, because she is not Rose. She is a shadow, a paper flower that is so afraid to be crushed she won't even move anymore- blinks in confusion. I can only smile at her, and she looks at me as she cannot understand why I am smiling. She has forgotten what such a movement of the mouth means, how and why people do it to one another. She has not seen a smile in the darkness for a long, long time. My hand reaches out, to her cheek. She flinches as our skin meets, her cool skin like fire to me. Her eyes plead with me; she does not expect me to save her- she has forgotten people are capable of that- but only to leave her, to not cause her anything more tonight. Jimmy as done enough. But I hold her gaze, and there is nothing but love and friendship there, and gradually, she realises. That I am not here to hurt her, to maim, to destroy. I am here to do what I always do. Save.

"Oi, did you not hear me mate?" Jimmy's voice breaks through our moment, our moment that lasted forever and for not a second, and Rose shrinks away from me. Whatever had been growing in her from me was swiftly disappearing, being buried again by the fear; the never-ending, crushing fear of rejection from someone she has lost faith in. "I told you to get away from her"-

I stood up.

Rose's hand dropped from mine, severing something profoundly more than just a skin to skin contact. I looked at Jimmy.

That was all I did. I looked.

It was enough.

Jimmy's face paled, he gasped, stumbling away from me. His eyes were full of a fear so great, not even the younger, abused Rose could have expressed it.

This was primal, paralysing terror.

Because of me. My expression.

I knew what I looked like to him. Angry- hot, lividly furious- Time Lords had been described by religious people, by normal people, every kind of people, in the same way. As a fallen, furious angels.

I'd seen what my people could do- the pure, uncensored, unblanketed fury. White hot, sparking, everything in the universe that had ever burned bright and hot, all gathered together and personified into Time Lords. Into their eyes.

Rose knew me as a person who saved, who took all the evil from the world and made it better, like a God. Like a _doctor_. But there are parts of me she has not- and will never- see. The darker parts, the parts of me forged and locked away during the Time Wars. The deadly, unquenchable urges to tear, to rip apart, and nothing could stop it. Time Lords were stronger much, much stronger- faster, everything a predator should be. I never told her. About how much of a darkness gathers in me, my heritage, and it whispers to me. To hunt, to kill. To be the universes best predator, like I should be. I resist. But not today.

Everything that is and can never be inside me, everything I was and wasn't- the parts that I kept tight to my soul and never let escape, the burning, raging heart of the sun that I was; all channelled at one, fragile, breakable human.

Jimmy Stone was facing something far beyond his control. And it was terrifying him. He was scrunched up at the base of the wall, pressed as far into the bricks as he could manage. Every layer that humanity had evolved and created had been burned away by my fury, and now all that was left of Jimmy Stone was a primitive, animal instinct. Fear, and the will to survive. I knew he would run, his human, feral desperation to _live _driving him- and I would catch him. Easily, without even the barest of challenge, I would catch him, drag him back.

And then he would struggle. He would fight me. Or try to.

The darkness inside me- rejoicing in the freedom I had allowed it- sung, powering my blood. _I_ was the higher race. I deserved- it was my right, my heritage- to have inferior species grovel at my feet. I was built to rule over them. To decide whether they lived or they died. To determine their path, their role in the universe. I was a Time Lord, and that was my existence. To govern, to rule, and to kill them.

I pulled him to his feet. Without even a break in my breathing, Jimmy Stone- all muscular twelve stone of him- was hoisted to his feet and slammed against the plastic, mildly reflective substance ailed to the brick wall, with enough casual force to crack it. His eyes were crazed with his fear, blind to me now. Didn't even have enough of his sanity left to struggle with me. It would do him no use. I held him easily and completely, two feet off the ground.

I could have killed him then.

So many ways- thousands, billions- I could crush the life from his frail body. And leave nothing but dust on the wind.

So easily, and no-one would care. His soul could fade out of existence, and the universe wouldn't even blink.

And I could've done it. Without an ounce of regret I could have snuffed his life out like a candle, then and there.

Because of Rose.

Anyone else and I would've been able to restrain myself, the darkness within me. But _not her_. Never her. Whenever Rose was concerned- her life, her safety, her dignity, _anything_, small or large- and my morals deserted me. I, the Doctor- so against killing, injuring others; especially humans, was prepared- and yearning, _hungry_- to kill this tiny insect for her. I wanted to so badly; I was livid at the thought that anything would- _could_- hurt her, and I wanted it _out_ of my universe, for good-

"Please."

The voice was tiny, imperceptible to normal hearing. Rasping, incomprehensible, desperate.

I heard it.

And I looked up at the face of my prey.

Jimmy Stone was looking at me. Desperate, that will to survive again. "Please, mate. Don't hurt me"-

"Why shouldn't I?" I spat in a voice that belonged to a different part of me. A part that had seen worlds ripped apart, had been blackmailed into so many heinous things, had been tortured at Azgard and carried the shadows with me, even now. "Tell me I should spare your pathetic, insignificant life when you so happily _destroyed_ hers?" Jimmy seemed to want to look behind me where young Rose was, but I held him fast. I wanted answers, and by everything in me I was going to get them. I hissed, the vicious sounds rattling through my teeth and making him flinch. It was an animalistic noise, something akin to a feral cat, a danger, something to be avoided, afraid of-

It told him what I was, and what he heard was not something he liked. His body jumped under my hand, his heart racing frantically under my fingertips. I smiled thinly, darkly, at the noise. Such a fleeting, whisper of a sound; fluttering, as if it were sensing what I was and what I represented, and it was determined to beat as much as it could before I choked it.

"Please. I'm sorry." Jimmy gasped, heart already beating faster, if it were possible; so fast now it must have been painful. I smiled again; good. "I'm so sorry, I won't- I- I'm sorry, I'm sorry, just please, please don't hurt me"-

His words were jumbled up, viscous in his fear. Sentences blended together, screaming of his desperation and his fear and his impending death. They picked up pace, higher and higher. Shriller and faster as I leaned forward until I was whispering in his ear-

"Tell me why, Jimmy," I hissed, and I felt his heart stop altogether for a moment. His breathing hitched and shrank until he was gasping and making no sound at the same time. "I should spare your life, leave right now, leaving you alive, when everything you have woken in me tells me to rip you apart?"

Jimmy's knees buckled underneath him, and if my hand hadn't been pinning him to the wall, he would have collapse. I let him my hand leaving his chest in disgust. e crumpled, shrinking into the smallest ball possible at my feet. The darkness purred deep in my chest. This was how it should be- me, with my prey's irrelevant, miniscule existence lying at my feet. Ready and waiting, practically begging, to be taken, torn apart by me. I could kill him easily, at my own leisure and that was the natural order of the universe.

Again, time ceased to matter as I leaned forward, closer towards the hapless creature practically pleading with me to rip it apart. With Jimmy's soft, pleading cries in my ear, I allowed the darkness to overwhelm, to do what it had demanded of me ever since I realised who the girl was; closer, closer, getting closer him every heartbeat-

And then I caught sight of myself in the mirror-like plastic nailed to the wall.

**Um, next chapter at the weekend? **


	5. Lies and Roses

**A/N: Right... 31 REVIEWS FOR 4 CHAPTERS?!! Bonkers... **

**Anyway, sadly (let me hear you sniff people!!) this is the last chapter, so I'm gonna thank you all in one big list: **

**Lizzle09- as always!- Weepingangel123, Sunfall E, TARDISgirl192, Spacehead 3, EeE, Xbakiyalo, Landport Looney, Azaneti, horsesrock8, Xxx, ****LuckyBlackCAt, IfEaRnOfIsH, Morgan Ojeda, gaiafreedom21, Becka D, btvsfifi, hopecohen, coralie91, pinkwar... thanks!!! **

**≈ Chapter Five: Lies and Roses ≈**

The plastic was covered in grime, mud, whatever- almost grey with it, but it didn't matter. I could still clearly see what I had become.

My eyes were the black, merciless eyes of a falcon, leaning over the helpless mouse. My hands were talons, and there was nothing, nothing at all, not even the barest flicker, of emotion on my face.

My head snapped upwards and I stumbled back, away from him, disgust flooding through me. But not towards him… for _myself_.

My hands dropped to my sides, becoming just fingers and palms and nails again. The dark parts of me receding, hissing in the light of my realisation.

What was I?

My hands Rose to me face, and I stared at them. They were not mine. Unfamiliar; someone else's. Hands that could have so easily been covered in Jimmy Stone's blood.

Time rushed back to me, and noise came back with it- car horns, raucous laughter. The noises of Earth- a world I loved. That I protected with every ounce of my being.

And what I had wanted to do, just then, was the entire opposite.

My shoulders shook and I stumbled backwards, leaving Jimmy still curled together at the wall. I felt sick, revolted, confused.

How was I any better now than the monsters that I protected this world from?

"Because that's not you."

I heard the voice- Rose's voice, but younger- and it took me a long moment of staring at her face blankly to realise I'd spoken out loud.

"That's, that's not you." She whispered, and there was no fear- why was she not running screaming from me? I was… despicable.

"You're not like Jimmy. I don't know who you are, but you're better than him."

Maybe she was right. It was a possibility.

But she could also be disastrously wrong. Which was a probability.

I didn't reply. How could I? I did not deserve to be spoken to.

I felt the coolness on my hand break through me despair. I looked down and saw the seventeen year old Rose smiling at me tenderly.

"We're all human." She said, and looked at Jimmy when she said it, and her smile faded slightly.

I shook my head, despair colouring my voice. "Not me." That had never been truer.

She blinked at that, confused, but then realisation washed over her and she opened her mouth. And then closed it again, as she thought the question was inappropriate for the moment. I could've guessed what it was- _seriously?_

"You don't have to be human to have human emotions." She murmured instead. "You don't have to be human to make human mistakes."

I smiled at that- a real, proper smile. "You're just the same." I knew she wouldn't understand the context of what I said, but I don't even think she was listening to me. She had other things on her mind, I found out.

Because, without realising how or why, I found her kissing me.

Dimly, part of me tried to remind me I was _meant_ to be wallowing in self-hatred, but right now I hardly cared. Because I was kissing her back.

Everything paused, as if the world was holding it breath. Noise stopped, so I only faintly heard Jimmy scramble up from behind us and lurch away. My hearts slowed, and then sped up. Her skin was like ice, cold and fiery at the same time, under my palms. She inched closer to me, and I frowned as I realised she had her belly button pierced. I was _so _goingto give Rose grief for that when I found her again.

I quite enjoyed kissing Rose actually. Albeit a one four years younger than mine.

I pulled away at that thought, and she looked at me in confusion, her cheeks flushed from the intensity as our kiss hand deepened.

"What was that for?" She asked me, and my eyebrows rose as I stood up.

"I'm a bit old for you." I meant it literally, and in the human sense of the word- she _was_ seventeen, after all. She only shrugged. I felt myself sing inside at the lightness in her steps now. She would be okay.

"You're the man who helped me without me asking you to." She said, her eyes solemn again. "Nobody else did." She sighed heavily, looking at the spot where Jimmy had been. "I was too proud just to ask for help."

I took her hand and she smiled at me. "Thank you."

I smiled back at her. "It's what I'm here for, Rose."

"How did you know?..."

I only winked as my hand left hers and I walked away.

* * *

The TARDIS hummed at me, welcoming me home with the warmth of a beloved spouse, the moment I stepped through the doors. Normally I would have greeted her back, maybe given the console a bit of a stroke, but right now I had bigger things occupying my attention.

Like the huddled blonde figure wrapped in my coat, sniffling.

I crossed the distance between us in three long strides and reached Rose in seconds. She didn't respond as I enveloped her in the biggest and warmest hug I could muster without choking her.

We remained like that, endlessly; existing outside of space and time and just _being_. Time spent with Rose was like that- everything else ceased to matter to me. She became the centre of the universe which I revolved around. Like the human Sun, and the Earth orbiting around it. I could not imagine where I would go, what I would do, without her. She had me on a rope, guiding me, leading me, for so long now I'd forgotten how to function on my own. I was a lost planet without an orbit whenever she wasn't with me. I needed her, so completely that my universe stopped when she wasn't around.

The smell of her shampoo- lemon, I thought absently- infused the air around me, making me giddy and light-headed. I held her tightly, drinking it in, as her shoulders shook and her fingers knotted in my clothes as she pulled me closer.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, her voice was hoarse and raw, raspy compared to her usual strong London lilt. She looked up at me with red-rimmed eyes, streaks of her tears still evident. I wiped them away with my fingers.

"What for?" As an answer, she held up my brown coat, which was streaked with her salty tears.

"I don't think it's going to come out." She said, her voice small. I smiled at her, and chucked the coat behind me as my response. The coat didn't matter. Nothing did.

Only her.

* * *

"He started it when I was sixteen." Rose's eyes were still red, and her voice was thicker than usual, but after our lengthy and intimate hug, coupled with my fantastic tea-making skills, she was looking better. "Small things, insults, mostly. Then he started slapping me. Not often, but it got worse." Her eyes flickered to mine, seeing the dark anger there. "It was long time ago, Doctor." Her hand sought mine, pulling me back from the darkness. The only thing that could. I squeezed her fingers over the console, as I drove one-handed.

She sighed, and I can see she is not fully rid of the shadows Jimmy Stone forged in her, but she is still a different person that the seventeen year old ghost she had been. I am grateful, for that. Her eyes meet mine and I see the passion there as she speaks.

"It was you, all along, you know. You save me time and time again Doctor, when we're travelling around, fighting the darkness, saving everybody. You are always there and you bring me back. And you did that for me then, too." She pulls me into another hug- the thousandth of the evening, but it is too few for me- and I let her. Revelling in the feel of her arms around my neck, the gentle weight- familiar almost as another part of my body- of her head resting on my chest; the highest she can reach. I feel in the tension of her arms, her back, underneath my palms, that she loves it too. But I say nothing of it, and, like it has so many times before, the moment is experienced and then cut off, undiscussed. We know and that is enough- words are superfluous.

"Such a long time ago now." She murmurs, her voice vibrating through me. "And yet I can still remember that night. Jimmy had been so good all the time we were in Tequila. And then he just flipped- like he'd always do- and then… and then there a stranger there, with the craziest hair I'd ever seen, and the best." I smile into her hair as she laughs. "And then Jimmy was gone, just popped out of my life like an elastic band. Never saw him again, ever. Not once. Thank whoever for that."

"What did you do?" I asked quietly, softly enough that she could pretend not to hear if she wanted to.

"I did what I should have done when I was sixteen- realised that pride isn't everything, and going back to your mum when you were wrong doesn't mean you've lost it." She said, smiling half humourlessly, and half properly. "And I started my life again. Then I met the most amazing man ever, and my life became a proper thing, not just an existence." She looked up at me then, and tapped the bridge of my nose gently, never looking away from me. I couldn't speak- I didn't need to. There were no words as we stared at each other.

"Doctor…" She whispered, stopping, swallowing. Gathering a breath before she continued. "Don't pull away this time."

Before I had time to do more than realise what she'd said, before my response was cut off, I was kissing Rose Tyler for the second time in a matter of hours.

This was different- she wasn't seventeen, and she was telling me without words everything I knew anyway. Everything I knew and returned. Words weren't used, or needed- what more could I say with words that I couldn't say like this?

There was nothing but our breathing and the soft hum of the TARDIS as we pulled apart- at the same moment this time, and with regret, not by my initiation.

"Rose..." I said, my voice hardly higher than a breeze would be, and yet she heard me. Or maybe she just knew what I would say anyway. "What's your say on 2006 Garfield's? I'll even let you have some chips this time."

Our laughter followed us all the through the Time Vortex.

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing it! But that's it, from me, I'm afraid. If I actually stick to it this time, this will be the last fanfic I write. How sad for you out there.. (nah, just kidding I'll think you'll survive) you'll just have to read all the others I've written!**

MeVsRiverSong


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